FILMS

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS Eliza Hittman’s committedly feminist drama is an example of American realist cinema at its most unvarnished, and most emotionally powerful. Writer-director Hittman made a significant splash in 2017 with Brooklyn-set teen drama Beach Rats, and this year her follow-up won major awards in both Sundance and Berlin. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is about Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), a 17-year-old high-school student from Pennsylvania who discovers she is pregnant. There’s the merest skeleton of a story: Autumn and her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) take a bus to New York, nervously pass the time before Autumn can get an appointment in an abortion clinic, and reluctantly hang out with a pushy boy they meet on the bus.

This exceptionally spare film has a documentary-like clarity that emerges from what is clearly a deeply researched insight into the pressures